


Bunny Kisses (Are Necessary for Emotional Wellness)

by penlex



Series: Fraternal [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Adolescent Sexuality, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, F/M, First Time, Gen, High School, Loss of Virginity, hormone hangover?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-17
Updated: 2013-10-17
Packaged: 2017-12-29 17:33:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1008147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penlex/pseuds/penlex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cora's first time sucks, and then the morning after sucks worse. Derek helps her through it, and makes sure she knows he's always there for her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bunny Kisses (Are Necessary for Emotional Wellness)

**Author's Note:**

> I changed this title because I learned that "esk*mo" is a slur against Inuits. The more you know. My apologies for the usage!
> 
> Cora is 17 and so is her partner.  
> TW: very brief, vague mention of past Kate/Derek statutory rape. Rated for this, and for other grown-up discussion.

Cora cashes in her V-card on a Tuesday, at a friend's house when they're supposed to be studying. They're not dating or anything, not particularly interested in each other that way, but they're horny and distractible teenagers so one minute they're quizzing each other on vocab and the next they're rolling around on his bed and her bra is missing. It's not a big deal, Cora thinks at the time, but the actual sex itself does kind of suck.

Laura is the one waiting for Cora when she gets home too late. She's probably somehow convinced the parentals that Cora isn’t in trouble; she's really the only one who can truly lie to them. She's a gift, basically. Cora confesses about the bad sex, and Laura grins and tells her that her first time sucked too. She says the next time will be better, and the time after will be better than that. She winks cheerfully and ruffles Cora's already messed up hair, and says, "That's just how it is, little sis." Cora thanks her and goes up to bed, feeling disappointed but just fine.

 

Cora wakes up in the morning with sore thighs and sore forearms and a sore neck. She groans and stretches to relieve some of the tension. She's used to a little muscle aches from cheerleading and track, so that stuff is normal and whatever. The weird part is that the inside of her body feels sore too. It starts between her legs, of course, and radiates up from there into the core of her body, almost like it's her abs that are feeling it but deeper than that. It seems silly to the logical part of her brain, but the sensation makes Cora feel lonely and cold.

 

At school, everything seems kind of muffled and distant. Cora tries her best to concentrate on her classes, to give her friends the attention they need, but she feels like she's swimming through a river to accomplish every little task. She wants a hug, but she also doesn't want anyone to touch her, or to get in her personal space at all. She sees her study buddy in the lunch line and her heart races and her stomach swoops, but not in a good way, like she's scared of him or something. Cora thinks her reaction is ridiculous, but she also trusts her instincts so she leaves the cafeteria without any food. She decides it's useless for her to be here today, and signs herself out in the front office.

 

When Cora gets home, Derek is banging around in the kitchen. He's been religiously learning all of Mom and Dad's recipes like the dweeb he is, being a good son and using up every ounce of their food while he takes advantage of the character scholarship he got for basically being a loser during high school at Beacon Hills Community and trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life.

"Skipping, Ms. Hale?" he calls over the hissing-crackling noise of something sizzling in a pan, in a mock disappointed 'teacher' voice. "Tsk tsk, young lady." Cora doesn't respond, just sits at the kitchen table and lets her school bag sink off her should onto the floor. She doesn't even have the energy to blink at Derek's broad grown-up shoulders, a relatively new development. His face is grown up now too, most of his baby fat gone and the cut of his jaw sharp and starting to get 5 o'clock shadows. He looks almost as much like Mom as Laura does. He maybe could even make a rule or something and someone might accidentally listen to him. Cora can't really smell what he's cooking, and suddenly feels herself start to cry.

Derek turns away from the stove immediately – he must smell the salt of Cora's tears over the spices he's using, or hear her sniff or something – with wide blue-green eyes and a mouth tight with surprise and concern. A sob escapes Cora without her permission, and she gives up and lets the next one go freely and reaches out for her brother the way she used to when she was a toddler. Derek comes to her without hesitation, wraps her up in his big arms, squeezes her, and rubs his sandpaper cheek firmly on the top of her head. He smells like pack - like Mom's perfume and Uncle Peter's leather jacket and baby powder and old books and the woods. Cora breathes it in, in great gulps, and makes a big salty wet spot on his soft shirt. He rumbles comforting noises deep in his chest like Dad taught him to do back when their littlest cousins were teething, until Cora's broken whines match up with him and she can get a full breath of air without choking on it.

When Cora is finally quiet, Derek pulls back from her just enough to push her hair back off of her forehead with one hand and cup her face with the other, thumb brushing back and forth over her damp cheek soothingly. He gives her a bunny kiss, gently rubbing their noses together, and she gives him back a watery giggle. Then she dives forward and hugs him tightly around his waist, pressing her face hard right back into the wet spot she made in his shirt, and tells his developing abs all about the bad sex and the soreness and how awful she feels.

"What's wrong with me?" she asks him when she's done. This time the noise that vibrates through him and into Cora is distressed, and Derek pulls away again to squat in front of her chair and firmly meet her eyes.

“There’s nothing wrong with you, Cora,” he insists. His eyes are wide and earnest, like usual, but with a little extra shine in them that makes Cora feel uncomfortable to see. “Everyone reacts a little differently to a new experience, especially something like sex. Your body’s just trying to figure out what happened and it got confused.” Cora scrunches up her face in skepticism. Derek half-grins bashfully, shrugs one shoulder.

“Sometimes people need to talk about it afterwards,” he explains further. “Or cuddle, or have dinner, or something, I don’t know. Whatever. Or…” Derek’s eyes drop from Cora’s and land on her chin. His hands on her arms tighten – there may or may not be just the barest touch of claws on her skin – and Cora senses what’s coming, feels guilty for making him talk about it again, and preemptively shakes her head. “…Maybe, sometimes you don’t w— you weren’t ready.”

“No!” Cora assures him. “It wasn’t like –” _you and Kate_ “…that.” Derek meets her eyes again and says, “Good.” There’s fire there, and Cora knows without a doubt that Derek would have killed her ‘friend’ without even the barest of second thought or regrets if he thought she’d been tricked or coerced into anything. The knowledge warms her up, loosens up some of the painful tightness inside (damn, she hadn’t even noticed she had a headache, but now that it’s fading…) and Cora very suddenly is ravenous, and on the verge of tears again.

“I think your food is burning,” she tells Derek with a thick voice.

“Fuck it,” he says with a shrug, making Cora giggle again. Then he ruins the whole comedic-relief thing they had going by adding, “You’re more important.”

Cora smears her hands across her face, wiping away smudged makeup and tears, and mumbling behind the cover of her own arms, “Thanks for taking care of me, bubber.” That’s what she used to call him before she could make a ‘ _th_ ’ sound, and usually when she uses it nowadays Derek will glare and do something big-brother mean. This time, though, Cora feels him smile against her cheek as his presses another bunny kiss into her temple.

Derek rubs Cora’s shoulders firmly for several long minutes, and then does his best to salvage his cooking (it doesn’t work out and he has to start over with something else). While the final meal is cooling, Derek brings Cora a fluffy blanket and wraps it tightly around her. He serves up her food for her, meets Mom’s eyes determinedly when she appears in the doorway behind Cora until she leaves them alone to their bonding or whatever his look convinced her they were doing. He never responds out loud to Cora’s thanks, but that’s okay because it’s easy to read in his face and actions, in his scent and the way he touches her:

‘ _That’s my job, little sister._ ’

**Author's Note:**

> look me up on [tumblr](http://fortheglare.tumblr.com/) for stale meta n fresh memes


End file.
